New data from the U.S. Census Bureau gives a detailed look at school enrollment in the United States. The data shows that 23.4 of the entire U.S. population over the age of 3 was enrolled in school in 2024. That year, school enrollment included 8.5 million preschool or kindergarten students, 32 million students in first through eighth grades, 17 million high schoolers, and 17 million undergraduate and graduate students.
Black Americans made up a larger percentage of school students at every level of education compared to the Black percentage of the U.S. population. Black students made up a larger percentage of students enrolled in higher education than they did in elementary or secondary education.
Here are the numbers:
- There were 1.4 million Black students enrolled in preschool or kindergarten programs. They represented 17.1 percent of all students at that level of education.
- Black children were 15.4 percent of the more than 32 million students in grades 1 to 8.
- There were 2,704,000 Black students enrolled in high school in 2024. They made up 15.8 percent of all high school students.
- There were 2,907,000 Black students in undergraduate and graduate higher education. They made up 16.7 percent of all students.
In 2011, there were more than 3.5 million Black students enrolled in higher education. In 2019, before the pandemic, there were just over 3 million Black students enrolled in higher education. In 2024, only 2,907,000 Black students were enrolled at colleges and universities.
